Tuesday is election day. Here’s what you need to know about local races.

Tuesday, November 6 is election day, and if you’re like us you’ve been hitting refresh on 538 and RealClearPolitics every few minutes to check in on the latest for national races. However, the local elections in our region are some of the biggest opportunities we have to make the Washington region even greater. These local decision makers directly affect our neighborhoods and cities.

We’ve covered a lot of local races in the region this year, so take a moment in between refreshes to read up on the top races in our area and peruse GGWash’s recommendations.

These ANC races are often the hardest to find information for and rarely get covered in a substantive way. Take a look, learn about your DC neighborhood controversies and where candidates stand on them, and share with friends and neighbors!

Now that the primaries are over, the top two local offices (Mayor and DC Council Chairman) are pretty much decided. However, on Tuesday the marquee race to watch is for At-Large DC Council, where incumbent Elissa Silverman is facing a challenge from Dionne Reeder.

There’s a lot of backstory here worth looking into, but this race hinges on two big issues: Paid Family Leave legislation Silverman helped to shepherd through in the last few years, and Initiative 77, the voter initiative to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers that the DC Council recently overrode. On urbanist issues, we think Silverman is clearly the best choice, and encourage you to give her your vote.

Below are our 2018 primary endorsements and rationale for other DC candidates on the ballot on November 6, which we expect not to be quite as competitive as the Silverman-Reeder race:

The County Executive race in Montgomery County has been a hard call, and many urbanists are trulysplit on this one. However, we are endorsing Nancy Floreen. Despite our concerns about Floreen’s transportation positions, we really disagree with the way Marc Elrich thinks about land use policy.

Virginians, we know you’re really focusing on the national level right now, and you should. Some of your local races are pretty much decided now that primaries are over, but for those who live in Arlington an important race to watch is Matt de Ferranti taking on incumbent John Vihstadt for Arlington County Board.

We really like Ferranti’s urbanist chops, and Vihstadt has rarely led on important land use or transportation issues in the past, instead choosing to play the role of skeptic and interrogator on many proposals before eventually acquiescing with his vote. We hope Arlington voters give Ferranti a shot this year.

Below are our other choices for local races from our 2018 primary endorsements:

Not sure where your polling place is? Plug your home address into the tool below. You can also use Google’s voting tool, which will tell you your polling place, your voting and ID requirements, and a pretty good roundup of what will be on your ballot.

David Whitehead was the Housing Program Organizer at Greater Greater Washington from 2016 to 2019. A former high school math teacher and a community organizer, David worked to broaden and deepen Greater Greater Washington’s efforts to make the region more livable and inclusive through education, advocacy and organizing. He lives in Edgewood.